Don't Misunderstand Me
by SKYLAND2704
Summary: Misunderstandings can end even the most amazing relationships, and Sky and Z are just beginning to realize that. A second challenge fic!


**A?N: A challenge Fic, given to me by mon awesome amie Z Tate.  
**

**Challenge: use the line "So, you can't lose to me but you can lose me,Huh?" in a story.**

**How did it turn out?**

**DON'T MISUNDERSTAND ME**

"baby I'm sorry." this was the millionth time Sky had said this, and was getting sick of it. Why could she not forgive him? She hadn't even given him a chance to explain.

"keep your sorry to yourself!" she said, for the millionth time.

Okay, he had officially given up with this. He loved her, and if she couldn't see that, well, it was her loss.

Z Delgado wasn't usually this stubborn and unforgiving, but what he had done was just too much. He had been neglecting her for too long, their four year long relationship wasn't going to last longer. She was positively sure of it. She loved him, but perhaps it wasn't enough. Sky just didn't think before jeopardizing their relationship.

But Sky had a fair reason for what he did. He had something planned, and it didn't exactly go as he had planned it to. Something went wrong, and that something was something HUGE. And that something was all it took killing their relationship.

This was cold-blooded war now.

They traded icy looks when they passed each other in hallways. He was the red ranger, so he could make her do things she didn't want to, and he didn't mind exploiting this power, making her do laundry, tidying up, and a bunch of other chores. She also didn't stop messing with him and pretty much everything he called his own. She wrapped his entire car in duct tape. How she did that being a mystery, of course, and these pranks weren't the lighthearted jokes she used to play before on him. These were vile ones.

They didn't talk anymore, and their friends were divided. Bridge and Syd being on different sides of the war, yet being in love with each other, they had to sneak around like Romeo and Juliet.

Cold-blooded war.

Both of them had done things they regretted, but neither had the courtesy to say 'I'm sorry. I was wrong'.

It still hurt like broken glass, seeing each other. They tore themselves up, in silence. They had scars. Scars that reminded them to forget, but they couldn't. They couldn't heal, they couldn't let go, they couldn't do anything.

But there was no room in war for feelings.

They kept telling themselves, they'd be all right, but they knew the lies from the truth. And the truth was simple.

—-—-—-—

Time passed like this. It had been about six months now.

They had a night watch together. Since there were only four rangers, they did get ones together once in a while, but they'd always trade it off with their roommate. Today, however, neither of the two was available. Why? Cuz Syd and Bridge (on _perfectly different reasons_) were out of town.

When Z arrived in the common room, she found her Ex just sitting there, on Cruger's desk, perhaps waiting for her.

"hello there" he said.

"Tate." She commented, and went to work on the enormous computer screens. She surfed through them when he spoke, "I already checked. Nothing is happening tonight. Nothing ever happens on night duties."

"but a lot can happen" she said bitterly. Continuing her search, not trusting Sky.

He smirked, and continued sitting there, staring at the door.

"nothing" she finally gave up.

"told you so"

"I like to double check. You know, in case _somebody_ has made a mistake" her voice was savage.

"hey, you wanna play a game?" he asked, there was a game used to bring out truths. He wanted to try that.

"why not." The offer didn't sound too bad; after all, they had to spend the whole night together. They were stuck.

"it's called chain reaction. At least that's what we called in school, I don't know the official name." she scoffed at him, "anyway" he ignored, "I'll say a word, and you will say the first word that comes to your mind hearing that word, and then I'll say the word that comes to my mind hearing yours. Two second time limit. Clear?"

"yeah, I'll start. Your word is…" she thought she could give him a savage one, but if he was being a little friendly, what was the harm?

"earth" she finally said. z

"nature" he replied.s

"spring"z

"butterflies"

"wings"

"of fire." She looked at him, confused, and he said, "that fantasy book series? Wings of fire?"

"right. Flame"

"blue"

"you"

"yellow"

"green"

"red"

"pink"

"Syd"

"princess"

"Disney"

"Beauty and the Beast"

"movie"

"Star Wars"

"Jedi"

" Skywalker"

"Sky Tate"

"cheater"

"I am not a cheater!" he yelled, and Z casually said, "that's not a word"

"seriously?"  
"now that is, but you took so long to say it, I think you just lost in your own game. The time limit was 2 seconds." She crossed her hands, and looked at him, with a steely gaze.

"wait, I stopped the game. I didn't lose!"

"you stopped it, you lost it" she gave the verdict.

"I so did not!"

"yes, you lost to me Tate, accept it"  
"I won't. this is cheating" he said.

"wow" she silently mused.

"what?" he asked.

"I was just wondering the irony of the situation, you can lose me, but you can't lose to me." She said, like it was nothing, and he felt like strangling her.

"I never got a chance to explain to you!" he said, again, maybe she'd listen this time, "you never gave me a second chance, a chance to make things right!"

"right. You want to give me an explanation about how you were seeing another woman, did not show up for our anniversary, and when I went to meet you, I found you with HER? that's what you want to tell me? About how you completely forgot that it was our four year anniversary because YOU. WERE. WITH. HER?" she burst out. It wasn't what the calm Z Delgado would do, but she couldn't keep it in any longer.

"wait, a second, wait a second, wait a second" Sky looked thoroughly confused, "where did this second woman figure into the story?" he asked, innocently.

"YOU don't KNOW?" she felt like screaming.

"damn Z. I thought you were upset because I passed out on our anniversary"

"you… passed out?" now it was Z's turn to be perplexed.

"why? What did you think?"

"wait, wait, wait, what exactly happened that day?"

"you tell me!" he said, okay, Z sighed, and then began,

"you were acting so strangely. Weird, like you didn't want to be with me. You kept pushing me off, we didn't go out on dates, and stuff, I mean, I felt like we weren't close anymore. Then came our anniversary, and I thought that maybe you'd put some effort into it. But you…" she trailed off.

"I never stopped paying attention to you Z. I did my best to NOT make you feel like that instead. Maybe I'd gone in a wrong direction."

"okay, understandable, but on our anniversary, I saw you talking to this other woman, very closely."

"wait, huh?"

"I had seen her many times before, and I assumed it was because of her that you weren't paying attention to me"

"wait, you automatically assumed I was having an affair, just because you saw me talking to another woman? Do you see the problem with that?"

"right, I realize it now, but it all felt so real, you know?"

"alright, let me continue. Who was the woman you saw? Was she a little short?" Z nodded, "red haired? With freckles?" Z nodded again.

"okay, now let me tell you the whole story. And DON'T interrupt me" Z nodded again. She was feeling extremely stupid.

"so, Z, why I had been seeing that woman was because she was the event planner. I was going to propose to you on our anniversary. And I wanted the event to be big. I wanted to surprise you. So I hadn't told you about it. On the day of the anniversary, she came to me, saying that whatever she had booked was delayed due to snowfall on the road and would reach three days late. I wasn't really happy about it, but okay. I could live with it. I only had to convince you. But as it happened, I passed out because well… Bridge made me drink. You know how I don't drink when I'm with you right? But he made me. Said it was the right thing to do. Either way, yes, I passed out on our anniversary, and well, I forgot to tell you that the celebration was going to take place three days late. I realize that my folly was the whole big thing. I could've simply taken you out to dinner and asked you there. There would've been no problem at all. But what I did. I mean. It all went wrong! It wasn't supposed to be that way!" he ended,

"Sky" she felt so bad. It wasn't really his fault, and she had made him the bad guy all these months for nothing. He had tried to do something really nice, but it hadn't turned out the way it was supposed to, and he didn't know how to handle that. It was sorta cute. And Z, she herself had made some mistakes she wasn't proud of. She shouldn't have just assumed that Sky was cheating on her. Sky was such a nice guy; he'd never cheat on her. She was sure of it. And apparently she was right. He hadn't. She should've never doubted him: that was her folly.

This was way… too much info, and she needed time to process it. she couldn't decide whether she had to forgive Sky, or curse herself for doing this.

"Sky, Sky can we talk tomorrow? I feel like a headache coming."

"yeah, sure" he replied, slapping himself in his own head. She wasn't gonna forgive him. Why should she? He had been that stupid to not have a back-up plan in case plan A failed. What had he done? Gotten drunk and passed out, without even telling her that plan A was three days late. Big mistake.

Anyway, so Z left the HQ and Sky was sure she wasn't coming back.

—-—-—-—

Syd and Bridge were back, and they noticed that the tension between Sky and Z had changed; something was different. They weren't fighting, they weren't even talking. No steely glances, no cold looks exchanged, no nothing. They were avoiding each other like anything.

"how long were we gone?" Bridge asked.

"two days, one night" Syd replied.

"damn"

—-—-—-—

Sky was in his room, reading his SPD handbook, when there was a knock on his door. He opened it to a tear stained face of Z Delgado.

"Z? are you crying?" he asked, worried.

"do you still love me?" she asked, like a five year old kid.

"I never stopped Z." he replied, and to his surprise, she hugged him tightly, as she was afraid he'd fade away.

"I'm sorry I didn't trust you." She said her voice muffled by his large chest.

"Z, there's nothing to be sorry about. It happens, you know? Even I feel insecure at times. When I see you in heated contests with Bridge over this or that, do you think I feel very happy? No, I feel like screaming. I want you to be with me, and not anybody else." He let go of the embrace, and she looked at him, as if asking why.

He went over to the drawer, and pulled out a small box, he took it over to Z, and showed it to her, "this?" he asked, "this is my way of making sure you don't drift away from me. That you love me all my life" he opened it, and bent forward on one knee, holding it up to her, "Elizabeth Delgado, will you marry me?" then as an after thought, added a long, un-required, Bridge like monologue.

"I know this isn't what I wanted to be in the first place. I know my room in the SPD academy isn't the most romantic place in the world, and I know that you wanted it to be something special, but I think this is pretty…" the word 'special' came out very muffled as at that moment, Z placed her lips against his, a soft and gentle kiss, to make him stop talking. She had also come down on her knees.

"this was pretty special to me too." Z said, pulling back, and looking at him, "this, Sky, is the best proposal I can think of, and yes, I will marry you. I don't think you even needed to ask me that. I love you more than anything in the whole damn world, and I want to spend my life with you." She said, "I'm sorry we wasted those six months on this petty misunderstanding. It was my fault"

"I guess it was a joint mistake. Do you agree?"

"I guess I do,"

"I promise I'll never be that incompetent ever again" he promised.

"and I promise that I'll never jump to conclusions without asking you first, i.e., I'll never doubt you again." she replied, and this time, he leant forward and kissed her, they weren't leaving each other anytime soon.

A/N: I know, it was TOO messed up, but I was messed up when I wrote it, and am too lazy to rewrite. But you get the gist right? These two argue a lot, but at the end of the day, they love each other a lot. If it conveys this, I can sleep peacefully.


End file.
